Expert advice on Business Leadership and tips on becoming a more effective Leader.

Some of you are Tim Tebow fans and some of you are not — got it. Regardless of your feelings, let’s not miss the chance to learn something here about leadership. Here are a few things I’ve observed watching Tebow this season that may help you on your leadership journey.

Leadership Matters — Team sports require leadership. In the NFL, there is an expectation that the quarterback will provide that leadership. Business, ministry, government and academia are all TEAM SPORTS. If you are going to win, someone must lead. Tim provided leadership for the Broncos.

You’ve seen it happen again and again.

A corrupt government is toppled by revolutionary forces, marshaling the will of the people, the dictators fall, happiness reigns once again … but then something weird happens. The revolutionaries start looking a lot like the tyrants they just deposed.

It happens in business, too. A fresh new leader comes along, an innovative start-up comes out with something brilliant that mixes up the marketplace, an organization galvanized by someone new at the helm leaps inspired into double-digit growth …

You’ve probably heard those talks, the ones where the speaker gets everyone all worked up to a fever pitch with an emotional story, and then rallies them like drunken sports fans around the corporate mission.

It’s a bit like a political stump speech. The idea, of course, is that the people in the audience will be inspired to greater and more productive action.

You’ve been in that audience. You’ve heard that speech. Heck, maybe you’ve given that speech. (We know we have.) How well did it work? How long did its effects last?

Leadership — genuine, influential, effective leadership — is a subtle thing. It’s not something that readily reduces to a cookie-cutter recipe or paint-by-numbers formula. We all know that. That’s why there have been a thousand good books on leadership, and will be a thousand more. But for all we describe it and study it, it still seems elusive — which is why it so often surprises us when a truly great leader appears in our midst.

Why so elusive? In part, because great leadership is shot through with contradiction.

Early in my career, a client requested I meet with a prospective merger partner in the financial services industry. The schedule was tight, so for a week I flew around in a private jet to various cities and at each location was whisked away to my meetings in a waiting limo. I stayed in beautiful hotels and generally had a bevy of people making sure that every detail of my trip ran smoothly.

By the end of the week, I was getting used to being treated like I was important and I drove home on Friday night a bit full of myself. Anne, my wife, greeted me at the door with her normal cheerfulness and then dropped the bombshell on me.

Remember the Chicago Bulls of the ’90s? They won six NBA championships in eight seasons. When most people are asked who the leader of that team was, they respond with Michael Jordan. But that’s not entirely true; in reality, Phil Jackson was the coach and the official leader.

We all know that every team has a leader, and it is not always the person in the management position. While everyone wants to be a part of a successful project, not everyone is always willing to step up to the plate and take the lead.

What follows is a presentation given by Simon Sinek. In the video presentation he shares a simple, yet powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" He draws from examples which include the Wright brothers, and Apple computer among others.

Key points:

The golden circle is made up of three components:
1. why
2. how
3. what

* “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

* “if you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe.”

Every company is a tribe, or a network of tribes—groups of 20 to 150 people in which everyone knows everyone else, or at least knows of them. It’s a fact of life: birds flock, fish school, and people “tribe.” Tribes are more powerful than teams, strategies, or even superstar CEOs, and yet their key leverage points have not been mapped—until now.

Great leaders know they can’t instantly change the culture of 100,000 people, or even 50 people, with gimmicks or trendy initiatives. Successful executives focus on developing their culture one “tribe” at a time. The heart of leadership development is helping leaders to upgrade the effectiveness of their tribes, taking these groups from “adequate” to “outstanding.”

There is a big difference between managers and leaders. Managers are those who come to work, make sure all subordinates are getting the necessary tasks done, then leave at 5:00, never to really make a difference.

Managers sustain. They fail to upgrade their teams. They see no return in helping those under them grow personally or professionally.

Leaders are the ones who form and grow a company. Leaders try as much as possible to kill any bureaucracy and allow each member of their team to speak their mind. Leaders know that collaboration keeps employees engaged. It makes them feel important.

The Mfuwe Lodge in Zambia happens to have been built next to a mango grove that one family of elephants has always visited when the fruit ripens. When they returned one year and found the luxury accommodation in the way, they simply walked through the lobby to reach their beloved grove of trees.

Although this circumstance in Zambia literally depicts an elephant in the room, the phrase “the elephant in the room” is more commonly used to describe an issue that goes unacknowledged by a team. The elephant might be inferred or subtly acknowledged, but in most cases, remains unnamed.